Category Archives: on the farm

Good morning!

I would like to say that with spring upon us all sorts of things are getting done on the farm.  Oh, you have no idea how much I would like to say that…  However, with how wet it has been (read: frequent torrential downpours) it is difficult to get much done.  And there is a LOT to get done.  The weeds are winning the war, seeds should be in the ground, as should the beginning of the privacy hedge I want to add.  Mabel needs a clean out and air out, benches need painting, not to mention the chicken coop and playhouse.  Thank goodness my dad is coming next month and he pretty much rocks the to-do list.  (can I get a round of applause for daddy?  I’m pretty sure he is SO excited to come out!)

I have gotten a few things done in between cloud bursts- a bit of tidying up, a bit of herb planting, and at least the peas and kale are in the ground.  While out there I have noticed signs that while it may not feel like spring, it is definitely coming.  The rhubarb is nearly ready to be used, the espalier pear tree is completely filled with blooms and the earliest flowers are making an appearance.  We have a gorgeous evergreen clematis that smells divine and fills one of the pasture fences with white this time of year.  The peonies are up and bigger than ever this year, promising some beautiful flowers in the next few months.  As they are one of my very favorite flowers I always get excited to see their red stems coming out of the ground.

 

We have been in our home for ten years this coming autumn.  In those years we have done a number of things that had to be done, and a few things that we chose to do.  As we spend most of our time on our main floor in our kitchen, living room and dining room that is where we chose to do our biggest renovations.  The other rooms- namely the bedrooms have received little attention to decor, paint or design.  However, recently we moved boys around and it was the impetus to take time to work with the boys and decorate their rooms.

One thing you should know about me is that I don’t do “decorated”.  I prefer to fill the room with things that the boys love- things that inspire them and ignite creativity and learning.  I want them to walk into their room and feel like it is their space and they enjoy spending time there.  With that in mind, we have begun the process of “doing the bedrooms”.  Currently our home is in complete disarray.  Read: total utter chaos.  Rooms have been emptied to paint, furniture can be found in the workspace off the kitchen, in the living room and the hallway.  Plastic covers pieces that can’t be moved and I have felt like it may never end.  Until yesterday.  Yesterday, I was able to put #4′s room- his first room on his own- back together again.  I had such a good time hanging maps and shelves, making his bed and sticking the stars he had begged for on his ceiling.  I waited anxiously for him to arrive after school and was thrilled to see him love it as much as I had hoped when he walked in.  Room number one- SUCCESS.

 

Thanks to a wonderful suggestion by my friend Jeanne Oliver, I will be sharing what we are doing on the farm weekly.  I should warn you however that this post will not contain pretty photos.  I want this post to give you an actual glimpse into what life looks like on the farm right now.  And let me tell you, there is very little that is pretty this time of year.  The gardens are full of weeds that I have yet to clean out, due to the endless rain.  There are leaves covering much of the gardens along the drive and I have so much to cut back that still sits where it grew last summer.  Now, however it is brown and dead and needing to be removed. So, the photos below- they are what I see when I walk on the property these days.  But not for long- that I promise you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week on the farm we are cleaning up the gardens and removing all of the remaining leaves and branches that came down through the winter. With bulbs coming up I want to make sure that nothing stops them from sharing their bright spring color with us.  In the pacific northwest we have a  lot of evergreen trees but we also have a number of deciduous trees such as maple, poplar, black locust and cottonwood.  We try to remove as much of the leaves as possible each autumn but inevitably there are leaves that fall and are soaked by the winter rains which need to be cleaned up come springtime.  We use the leaves to cover paths or to add to our compost which will in turn become soil for the gardens.  Even the wine barrels that we fill with color in the summer are in need of a cut back and clean out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am also pruning back the old raspberry canes.  I think that the raspberries are our favorite fruit that we grow.  We use them for everything!  They make wonderful desserts, jams and jellies, they are great on salads with chevre. The boys love to come out to the gardens to simply snack on them.  We started with just a few canes in one row but now have two double rows in the lower garden pasture that we harvest from.  The majority of them are red but we have a number of golden raspberry canes as well that a friend gave to me years ago.  The grape vines which are just behind the raspberries also need to be pruned.  I use them to make wreathes in the winter for the holidays but those that aren’t cut then will need it now.

 

 

There is nothing pretty about chez poulet this time of year.  With the damp winter months everything is soggy.  The door needs paint this summer, as do the windows, but for now we will be cleaning out the coop and filling it with fresh shavings and straw for the nesting boxes.  Usually this time of year we are getting ready to add baby chicks, but as we had quite the massacre last Autumn, I added four chicks then, as we lost most of our layers.  If I had waited until spring I wouldn’t have had many eggs until this coming Autumn and we really love our eggs.  The four new girls should begin laying any time now~

 

As far as what we are seeing peek through the ground right now, there are the usual spring blooms- hellebores and daffodils.  The rhubarb is beginning to show itself- and as that is one of my favorite spring things to harvest, I am coaxing it along at every opportunity.  There are buds on the lilacs but no leaves yet.  I am hoping to clean out the garden boxes in the garden pasture as they are a mess.  As soon as they are clean and I have added some of our compost I will be getting the peas and greens planted.  I can’t wait!